This is usually followed by a long period in which there are no symptoms at all. Even if the person doesn't take antiretroviral treatment, they usually remain in fairly good health for several years.

But untreated HIV will, slowly and surely, damage the immune system (the body's natural defense system). This makes people vulnerable to a wide range of health problems.

The symptoms of advanced HIV disease (AIDS) are in fact the symptoms of other infections and diseases that the weakened immune system has been unable to keep under control. As such, the list of possible symptoms is highly varied. They are not symptoms of HIV itself.

You Can't Rely on Symptoms to Tell if You Have HIV

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A key message of this article is that consulting web pages such as this and checking yourself for the symptoms mentioned is a completely unreliable way to tell whether you have HIV.

This is because:

The symptoms of recent HIV infection are hard to tell apart from the symptoms of other viral infections.

Many people with recent HIV infection don't notice any symptoms at all.

After that, most people living with HIV suffer no health problems for several years.

Although there are no symptoms, HIV may slowly and subtly damage a person's immune system.

The symptoms of advanced HIV only occur after many years of infection, when the immune system is already significantly weakened.

If you are told that the test result is negative, you can be confident that this result was accurate three months ago. Occasionally, infections take up to three months to be picked up by a test. But if the last time you could have been exposed to HIV was more than three months ago, you can be sure that your negative result is accurate -- you do not have HIV.

What Are the Symptoms of Recent HIV Infection?

Remember, many people who have recently become HIV positive don't notice anything at all. It may be many months or years until they take an HIV test and get their diagnosis.

But when people do notice symptoms, they usually develop within one to four weeks after acquiring HIV and last for two to four weeks. These symptoms are associated with the immune system's natural defense against HIV. They are sometimes referred to as acute retroviral syndrome (ARS).

Typically, people experience three, four or more symptoms at the same time. These are the ones most commonly reported:

Fever (high body temperature).

Fatigue, tiredness or lethargy.

A skin rash, typically on the trunk or face rather than the limbs.

Muscle aches and pains.

Headache.

Symptoms reported by fewer people (less than half of those noticing symptoms) include:

Sore throat.

Swollen lymph nodes in the neck or armpit. They can be unusually large and tender.

Joint pain.

Oral ulcers.

Genital or anal ulcers.

Weight loss.

Nausea.

Diarrhea.

Night sweats.

Cough.

Anorexia.

Relatively few people with recent HIV infection experience some other symptoms. These include abdominal pain, thrush, vomiting, light sensitivity and genital ulcers.

What Else Could It Be?

You should not assume you have HIV just because you have some of these symptoms. In fact, the symptoms are almost impossible to tell apart from symptoms you might have with another type of viral infection, such as the flu.

For example, the flu and mono affect millions of Americans every year. HIV infections occur much less frequently.

The flu (influenza) is a viral infection that can cause fever, sore throat, swollen lymph glands, muscle aches, headache, chills and cough. Other viral infections of the upper respiratory tract, including the common cold, can also cause some of these symptoms.

Mono (infectious mononucleosis, usually caused by Epstein-Barr virus) can cause fever, sore throat, swollen lymph glands, fatigue and rash. It's diagnosed with a blood test. There's no specific treatment, but you should get plenty of rest and the symptoms will go away in a few weeks.

A strep throat (infection with Group A Streptococcus bacteria) can also cause sore throat, fever, swollen lymph glands, pain when swallowing, headache and nausea. Strep infections can be diagnosed by your physician using a throat swab and treated with antibiotics.

Viral infections that cause gastroenteritis (inflammation of the intestines) are sometimes called "stomach flu." In adults, norovirus is the most common of these viral infections. They can cause diarrhea, vomiting, headache, fever, chills and abdominal pain. Most cases resolve over time without treatment.

An allergic reaction to a new medicine can cause a skin rash, hives and some other problems.

If you are constantly worried about the possibility that you have HIV, it's possible that some feelings you have are symptoms of anxiety, rather than of HIV. Excessive anxiety -- an anxiety disorder -- can have symptoms including restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, a feeling of being on edge, muscle tension, irritability and problems sleeping. Support is available to help you overcome these feelings.

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